Radix Ginseng is one of the most important drugs for qi supplementation in traditional Chinese medicine. Its taste and nature: sweet and slightly bitter in taste and neutral in nature. Its functions and indications: having effects of replenishing the vital qi, restoring pulse and relieving collapse syndrome, reinforcing the spleen and lung, promoting the production of body fluid and tranquilizing the mind. Its indications: prostration due to general deficiency, cold extremities and faint pulse, poor appetite due to deficiency of the spleen, asthma due to deficiency of the lung, thirst due to impairment of body fluid, diabetes due to interior heat, general weakness due to prolonged illness, palpitation, insomnia, impotence, uterine coldness, heart failure and cardiogenic shock.
Clinical practices in traditional Chinese medicine and its combination with western medicine have confirmed that ginseng and preparations thereof had pharmacological activities for enhancing myocardial contraction force, expanding coronary artery, increasing coronary artery blood flow, reducing myocardial oxygen consumption, protecting heart muscle from reperfusion injury, inhibiting platelet aggregation, acting as antithrombin, etc., and are clinically used for treatment of chest impediment and heart pain (coronary heart disease), arteriosclerosis, etc.
The main reasons for chest impediment (thoracic obstruction) and heart pain are “YANG QI is weakened and does not run well in chest, and after a long time, YIN QI subjugates YANG QI, thereby forming obstruction” (“Classification and Treatment of Symptoms —Chest Impediment Chapter), or “pathogenic cold attacks body, cold food is eaten, heat accumulates in the interior, obstinate phlegm and dead blood exist for a long time, or because rage causes adverseness of QI” (“Ancient and Modern Medicine—Heart Pain Section).
When a person is middle-aged, chest impediment and heart pain may be caused by physical deterioration, gradual weakness of five solid organs, the disorder of functions of ZANG FU organs, deficiency of YANG QI in body, pathogenic hot or cold QI attacking the body, or eating and drinking without temperance, preference for fat and sweet food, or anxiety and overstrain, or depressed emotion. The pathogenic focus is heart, relating to lung, spleen, liver and kidney. Pathological changes are imbalance of YIN and YANG in ZANG FU and QI-blood, deficiency of heart-blood, deficiency of heart-YANG, thereby resulting in stagnation of QI, cold accumulation, phlegm, congestion, etc. that may stagnate heart meridian so that the impeded heart meridian, stagnated QI and blood stasis cause disease. The underlying pathogenesis is asthenia in origin and sthenia in superficiality, wherein asthenia in origin is deficiency of heart qi, heart blood, heart yin or heart-kidney YANG, while sthenia in superficiality is stagnation of QI, cold accumulation, phlegm, congestion that may stagnate heart meridian. During the pathogenesis, asthenia in origin and sthenia in superficiality usually are causes and results mutually and aggravate pathological condition, thereby presenting complicated symptoms with both appearance and substance. The treatment thereof mainly relates to harmonization of YIN and YANG, pyretic tonification of YANG-QI, and promoting flow of QI and blood. QI masters blood, so that blood circulation depends on QI flow. It is an important rule in treatment of chest impediment and heart pain to invigorate QI and enhearten YANG, and to activate blood circulation and dissipate blood stasis.
The results of researches in modern science indicate that the main bioactive components of Radix ginseng are ginsenosides. Although both red ginseng and sun-dried ginseng contain ginsenosides, their ginsenosides are different, i.e., red ginseng contains some ginsenosides such as ginsenosides Rg2, Rg3, Rh1, Rh2, etc. that do not exist in sun-dried ginseng. These new ginsenosides are secondary ginsenosides generated by hydrolysis of ginsenosides during the procedure for processing ginseng, such as steaming and drying steps.
These secondary ginsenosides have many new activities, for example, ginsenosides Rh1, Rh2 and Rg3 have significant anticancer activity and are able to induce the redifferentiation of cancer cells, i.e., to induce cancer cells to redifferentiate into healthy cells, while other ginsenosides have not such effects or their effects are relatively weak. Ginsenoside Rg3 exhibits relatively strong inhibitory effects on the platelet aggregation induced by collagen or ADP. Ginsenoside Rh1 has significant inhibitory effects on the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin induced by thrombin.
In addition, the in vivo metabolism of ginsenosides has been studied through serum pharmacology. The results show that native ginsenosides have a very low absorption rate in human body (e.g., the absorption rate of ginsenoside-Rb1 by oral administration is only 1%), and the active components actually absorbed by human body are secondary ginsenosides produced through the metabolism of intestinal bacteria. During the studying of in vivo metabolism of ginsenosides, Professor Wang Benxiang found that after oral administration of ginsenoside-Rg1, the bioactive components that were absorbed into blood were mainly secondary ginsenoside Rh1 produced by the metabolism of intestinal bacteria.
During the studying of the active components in “Pulse Engendering Beverage (Shengmaiyin)”, Professor Yan Yongqing found that better therapeutic effects were obtained when all the ingredients of “Pulse Engendering Beverage (Shengmaiyin)” compound formula were boiled together than that achieved when these ingredients were boiled individually. After all the ingredients of the compound formula were boiled together, the ginsenosides in the beverage were mainly secondary ginsenosides Rg2, Rg3, and Rh1, and all the native ginsenosides disappeared. The results of this studying showed that the main active components in “Pulse Engendering Beverage (Shengmaiyin)” complex were ginsenosides Rg2, Rg3 and Rh1.
However, the natural contents of these ginsenosides are very low. For example, Rg3 is only 0.0003% in white ginseng, about 0.03% in red ginseng is, while Rh2 and C-K are not present in natural ginseng at all, and Rh2 is only about 0.001% in red ginseng. C-K are metabolic products of ginsenosides by intestinal bacteria. Since these ginseng secondary ginsenosides are very difficult to obtain, it is almost impossible to perform drug development that needs an amount of compound at several kilograms level. Thus, it is necessary to develop novel processes for the production of these compounds.